Over the past 25 years or so, Scott Barnett, of Mansfield, Texas, has been content to fish various local and regional bass tournaments. His air conditioning business has limited his tournament time to weekends.
Barnett has sacked bass and claimed checks on a regular basis, but he always wondered how he would fare on a bigger stage.
“I got kind of bored doing the same thing over and over,” Barnett said. “I wanted to see where I stacked up against some of the best fishermen in the country.”
To find out, Barnett fished the Bassmaster Central Opens in 2014. His goal was to finish among the Top 20 in the point standings and qualify for BASSfest 2015.
“I wanted to at least fish one Elite Series tournament in my life,” Barnett said.
During the first Central Open of 2014 at Lake Amistad, bites were hard to come by for all the competitors. A shaky head worm carried Barnett to 14th place.
The bass were shallow during the next Central Open at the Red River. Barnett’s swim jigs and creature baits sacked enough bass to claim 58th place.
At the Arkansas River Open finale, swim jigs and creature baits helped Barnett nail down ninth place. He finished the season one place out of qualifying for the Elite Series.
If Barnett had qualified for the Elite Series, he would have faced a dilemma.
“Ten years ago I would have jumped at the chance,” Barnett said. “At this point, I would have to think long and hard about it.”
Fishing the Elites would put a dent in Barnett’s air condition business and in his pocketbook. His only sponsor is Fun-n-Sun boats.
“I’ve never pursued sponsors,” Barnett said. “It takes so much time to mess with it that I just do everything on my own.”
Barnett’s parents fished but they were not hardcore bass anglers. Fortunately for Barnett, Uncle Jack Metcalf was a bass addict.
“Uncle Jack has been taking me fishing since I was 10 years old,” Barnett said. “I started fishing team tournaments with him 25 years ago. We still fish an occasional tournament together.”
About once a month, Uncle Jack would take Barnett fishing at Amistad, Possum Kingdom, Proctor, Rayburn and other Texas reservoirs. Whenever Barnett was on leave from the Air Force, where he served from 1990 to 1994, he and his uncle would fish every weekend.
Pellucid Possum Kingdom Lake was one of their more frequent destinations.
“My uncle is a really good finesse fisherman,” Barnett said. “I learned a lot from him about fishing with light line and topwater baits.”
When Barnett competes at lakes that have stained water, he turns to power fishing, his strong suit. Over the past season, his ability to fish finesse and power baits severed him well.
Besides BASSfest 2015, Barnett plans to fish the Bassmaster Central Opens again this year. These events will consume all the time he is willing to take from his business.
Even if he qualifies to fish the Elite Series, it’s unlikely that he will accept the invitation. The caveat would be if he won an Open and qualified for the Bassmaster Classic.
“That might change everything,” Barnett said.